E3 2005: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault

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The Imperial Guard stomps into the arena to break some heads.

By Dan Adams

Last year was a pretty mighty year for strategy gamers and this year is looking like it could be just as special. On the turn based from we have games like Civilization IV and Galactic Civilizations 2 while the real-time genre is getting Age of Empires III and Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (man I hate that title). But one of the successful franchises from last year, Warhammer 40,000, which won out with Relic's brilliantly frantic Dawn of War is getting an expansion, subtitled Winter Assault, as well. After seeing it up and running, the addition looks pretty darn solid. It's not going to bring anything terrifically new to the table, but does add a new faction that balances the gameplay out even more and provides defensive minded players with an option of their own, even though the basic fast-paced gameplay still applies.

We all pretty much figured that Dawn of War would receive the expansion pack treatment. It was an excellently balanced RTS experience that was supremely exciting, especially in multiplayer matches. The big question wasn't "if" so much as "what?" With such a rich universe to pick from, it was simply guesswork as to which race they would decide to fold into the gameplay. After some consideration, Relic went with the Imperial Guard, which certainly wasn't what I was expecting, but after seeing them in action, it's a little easier to understand why.

The Imperial Guard is a much more defense minded group than any other force you'll find in the Warhammer universe. These are not the highly trained Space Marines, even though the technically work for the same boss, and don't act like them. They have a much lower level of commitment to battle, which means they'll break and run like a bunch of wussies when the going gets tough. It's not really surprising considering the Imperial Guard is basically made up of drafted bumpkins that don't really know what they've gotten into. But they have more going for them than simple cowardice, they have impressive war machines and buildings that can double as bunkers.

The demo that was shown to us was a running real-time demo in order to show off the various gameplay. At the beginning, the basic IG troopers were shown. You'll remember these guys from a couple of the single player missions in Dawn of War. They have pretty weak guns, but one group can hold a much larger number of units than any of the Space Marine squads. One of the neat things graphically about the troopers here is that they're all different sizes and have a variety of faces. They actually look like a bunch of dudes that were handed guns and told to fight back the evil hoards. They also look like they'd be slaughtered by any real threat if left to their own devices. And before too long, they were. A group of Chaos Space Marines can in and chewed them up quickly and deliciously. However, when a group of the same number came charging in a second time, the IG troopers moved into a nearby bunker and began firing from a secure location.

This gave the troopers an incredible defensive bonus. In order to get at the troopers inside, the Chaos Marines would have had to destroy the building first, which wasn't happening with all of the fire they were taking. Even better is the fact that the more troopers you set in one of these bunkers, the better fire bonuses that are received. The balance will obviously have to be in how many units you can really spare to sit in a bunker in such a fast paced game that requires expansion and quick movement, even when you're on the defensive.